anthroblogia

By now, anyone who reads this blog should know that I find the comments of blogs to be one of the most interesting things about blogs. So, I thought of doing a rough categorisation of different types of commenters (by the way, I know it’s meant to be ‘commentators’, but I just don’t like the sound of it…).

They are categorised in relation to position they take to the post and/or the blogger, and also their ‘Identifiability’ - i.e. how much information they leave about themselves.

The Firster
(aka Kiasu Commenter) Loves to be the first to comment. This phenomenon is restricted to a few high readership blogs. (Interestingly, according to one of my respondents this practice originated from Slashdot.org; does anyone have any thoughts on that?)
Examples:

‘Yay, first!! Na na nananana :p’
‘FIIRRRRSSSTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
‘NoOOooo – I tot I was 1st but den by the time I post some1 beat me oledi :(‘

Identifiability: High – probably not anonymous and probably leaves a link.

The Follower
May overlap with the Firster; will leave comments that say little more than ‘I was here and I think you’re cool/cleve/correct’.
Examples:

‘Haha lol this one so funny lah’
‘ROFLMAO you brighten up my day haha’
‘Once again you have nailed the issue. My hat off to you!’
'Interesting - never thought of this

Identifiability: Has name and probably links to blog.

The Hater
A version of the classic Troll, but distinguishes him/herself by never missing the chance to insult the blogger, whatever the post is about. It’s impossible to know if it’s the same person coming back, or not, because s/he always posts anonymously, or uses a pseudonym such as ‘Blogger_is_a_fugly_bitch’.
Examples:

‘You’re a fat idiot’
‘F**k you pathetic fool’
‘I hope you choke on your cigarettes, you poor excuse for a human’
‘Your thighs are fat and you have to photoshop out your ugly zits, I know because a friend saw you at the mall’
‘You’re a disgrace to Malaysians/Chinese/Malays/Indians/men/women/penguins…’

Identifiability: Lowest – typically anonymous and has no link. Continue reading "The 10 types of commenters"

One thing I’ve found since I started my PhD is that mostly academics are very contactable and happy to share material. So far I have contacted a few out of the blue, because I had difficulty getting hold of a paper written by them, and they immediately sent me a copy. Which is very nice.

I knew of a paper that talked about 9/11 and blogs, and had a interesting model relating to types of blogs in it, but I couldn’t remember the name (except that it started with a K and it was long) or where I’d seen it mentioned (now I think of it, it must have been in Blood’s book, anyway…). So I did a bunch of Googling and eventually tracked down this

Krishnamurthy, Sandeep. "The multidimensionality of blog conversations: The virtual enactment of September 11." AOIR Internet Research 3.0: Net/Work/Theory. Maastricht, The Netherlands. October 13-16 2002.

I emailed Sandeep Krishnamurthy and he kindly sent me a copy. Here is the model in it:

Continue reading "Blog typologies"